Favorite live music and general being alive moment: Neko Case and Eric Bachmann singing 'Sleep All Summer' - Got to hear this a few nights in a row when we were on the Neko Case tour and each time, I kind of found myself just standing there and marveling that people are capable of producing something like that song, and then turning it into a duet, and then that other people get to listen to it and have it become part of their lives.

Favorite Book: Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracey Thorn It's three years old but what does time mean anymore? So good and honest and open and warm. It gives you the same close feeling as the best Everything But the Girl songs.

Wake Up Everybody on KPOO: Donald Lacy is some darn good company on Saturday mornings. Great music, hilarious and honest and he puts it all out over the airwaves.

Yo La Tengo - "Before We Stopped to Think": Nothing to possibly add to this. There's just so much in this song and Yo La Tengo's inclusion of it on Stuff Like That There. So much.

Politico's Pulse Check Podcast: Public policy really gets my motor turning over, and in particular, health policy. Look for the one with Kate Baicker if you can't find a good place to start, and dig in from there.

Best Book: 18 and Life on Skid Row by Sebastian Bach Totally amazeballs memoir by the former Skid Row frontman. Partying with Metallica, partying with Bon Jovi, partying with David Lee Roth, three-ways, four-ways, etc.

Best Live Show: Nada Surf at Le Bataclan, Paris France. Nada Surf is a great live band, but this set, in a venue where you realize that somebody probably died in every spot where you put **your feet was fully transcendent, celebratory and a fitting tribute to those unlucky enough to have been gunned down there a year before.

Best New Guitar: Orange Fender Johnny Marr Jaguar So cool, but not as cool as Marr himself, who along with Warren DiMartini is my 2017 dude whose shit to learn.

Best Response to a song I co-wrote - "This might be actionable."

Most depressing response to a song I produced: "My dad says it doesn't sound like we do live."

Best Rock Experince: Opening for Neko Case in the Jennifer O'Connor band. Except for when I suddenly flipped the fuck out in front of the hotel in Portland, Maine... sorry about that guys!

Best thing I watched online: Walking the Room #81 - Patton Oswalt and Drop Some Bass

Animated by my good friend Brian Musikoff, this video about LA's storied Camp Freddy evenings made me laugh more than anything else I can recall seeing this year. It also loops back to Warren Di Martini (see how I did that) and to the most depressing response to a song I produced.

1. I got married. There were 19 people at the ceremony, which was in my sister’s backyard. I was always kind of “whatevs” about weddings, but I learned one awesome thing from my own: sharing your love creates more love around you, and that’s a nice thing.

2. I saw Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. It’s complicated and witty and exhilarating and sad. A prescient, modern story that needs to be told.

3. I decided less is more. Even though I work in the fashion industry, I have decided to purchase less and less. This documentary changed my POV on everything and put what was in the back of my mind immediately into action: http://truecostmovie.com/

4. I fell in love with Europe all over again. My husband (!!) and I traveled all over for our honeymoon. We went to Berlin, Brussels, Antwerp, Milan, Paris and Venice. We took trains and cheap planes and stayed in Air Bnbs. Life is much better when you get out of your comfort zone and experience new things. I am grateful we were able to take 3 weeks out of our lives and do this. Hot tip: Norwegian Air has super cheap flights to Europe.

5. I officially left NYC. After subletting my NYC apartment for the past year, I decided it was time to let it go. That tiny Kip’s Bay apartment was my home for 11 years, so it was a tough decision to make. I will always love you, NYC. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to meet again someday. For now, the West Coast has my heart.

Favorite music stuff I did: solo tours with Wussy and Tortoise; duo tour with Geoff Farina; tour playing drums with Obnox; live scoring of films of Peter Hutton; adding guitar to new recordings by Insect Factory and Locust Fudge; duos with Lori Goldston and with Greg Kelley; teaching guitar to kids and adults; new recordings with John Colpitts +James McNew, the Martha's Vineyard Ferries, the Empty House Cooperative and Hidden Tooth.

I finally got my studio hardware and software under control in the absence of free time, and the next CCLR album is a no compromises affair. It feels good to have traction again.

Favorite Plug-in Developers:

PSP

Valhalla DSP

SoundToys

Waves (specifically some emulated vintage compressors and EQs)

TV (I know it's evil but I'm weak don't judge):

Not all of these started in 2016, but they're still top of my heap.

VICELAND - particularly Abandoned, Balls Deep, Black Market, Gaycation, and Hamilton's Pharmacopeia. Most of their hosts are so gloriously anti-TV-standard, I wish I could live in a big messy house with them.

Blunt Talk - absolutely unique absurd celebration of every fear, hangup, kink, and flaw, crafted with love, and without apology. Starz pulled the plug after season two, and they're wrong. What did I expect from the channel that gave us Sparticus: Blood and Sand?

Silicon Valley - I assume this is better than business school, but I'll never know for sure. I'm confident that it's much funnier than business school. Mike Judge Perfection.

Masters of Sex - The pioneering work of Master's and Johnson is as important now as then.